The Paternos’ Lawyer and Spokesperson Told Bob Costas the Family is Suing the NCAA

Big Scott Paterno thinks the Freeh report is bologna… and he wants to eat it

I have no energy to cover the Paternos nonstop fight to clear Joe Pa’s name. But last night on Costas Tonight, which aired late after the Blackhawks-Red Wings Game 7 went to overtime, the Paterno family lawyer and spokesman announced that the family, Penn State board members and faculty are suing the NCAA for their blind adoption of the Freeh Report. The Paterno camp claims that the NCAA basically blackmailed Penn State to accept their sanctions otherwise they would be given the death penalty. From YDR.com:

Bob Costas had promised to re-examine the Freeh Report on his NBC Sports show.

He did just that late Wednesday night — and provided a forum for introducing yet another Penn State-related lawsuit against the NCAA.

The latest litigation is on behalf of Joe Paterno’s family, members of the Penn State board of trustees, faculty and former players and coaches, according to Paterno representatives.

“Costas Tonight” devoted an hour on the NBC Sports Network to discussing the Freeh Report, particularly in regards to Paterno in light of the Jerry Sandusky scandal at Penn State.

The latest came Wednesday night. Costas was joined by Paterno spokesman Dan McGinn, former attorney general and Pennsylvania governor Dick Thornburgh and Paterno family attorney Wick Sollers.

As part of selected excerpts from Costas’ interview released earlier Wednesday by NBC Sports, Sollers said the lawsuit is being filed against the NCAA, president Mark Emmert and Ed Ray, who was the chairman of the NCAA’s executive committee.

The purpose, Sollers said, is “to redress the NCAA’s 100 percent adoption of the Freeh Report and imposition of a binding consent decree against Penn State University.

“The reality is that the consent decree was imposed through coercion and threats behind the scenes and there was no ability for anyone to get redress. There was no board approval, there was no transparency, and there was no consideration of this consent decree.”

The Paternos are insanely annoying. But. But the further away from this we get, you get the sense that had Joe Paterno truly been the enabling creep that many are making him out to be, there would be more evidence than a couple of vague emails and wishy-washy testimony from pussy Mike McQueary. The Freeh Report was entirely too convenient in its findings in that it hurt no one who wasn’t either A) already dead or B) shamed. The NCAA and Penn State quickly accepted it, no others were hurt, and the school didn’t get the death penalty– problem solved. Hence the lawsuit.

You can get the entire Paterno side of the story on the very glossy Paterno.com.

I’ve always thought there was something strange with Freeh and the NCAA and how the NCAA never did their own investigation. NCAA should keep the money and JoePa’s wins and just return the scholarships to the kids.

problem is in that case….if your getting a scholarship to play football at Penn State there’s 100 other D1 scholarships available for you. its not like those kids are losing them, it’s the ones going to FCS schools like Nova who get trickled down to D2 because people are going to Temple instead of Penn State.

Although it is worth noting how amusing it is that the Freeh report seemed to cease all scathingness (a new word!) the closer it got to the people who were paying him to produce said report, e.g. the Board of Directors.

what will be interesting in moving forward are the outcomes in the trials of schultz, curley, and spanier. bottom line is the freeh report lacked two essential items…sworn testimony from key individuals and there was no legal recourse for the those who did testify as they were never under oath. if, and a big if, those three are exonerated, the NCAA will then find itself in a massive legal shitstorm being as penn state could then take legal action against the NCAA being as they were denied due process. again, a lot of big if’s above, but the NCAA better hope those three are convicted.

So let me get this straight…. the Paterno family is insanely annoying because they have been fighting nonstop to clear the name of their father as a key player in a corrupt cover-up…that now since time has passed, it looks like they were right all along.

Its amazing how mob mentality called for Joe Pa’s head when this all came about but now that time has passed people start using their brains, & suddenly Penn state alum don’t look so dumb defending the man they’ve watched for years, and truly didn’t believe he is capable of the things the media said he did.

You bloggers crack me up bec you don’t label yourself as “journalist” so its okay to give your dumb ass opinions when it really does influence more people than you think.

Scott really needs to lose some weight. He’s painful to look at. He’s at a “Nutty Professor” level of depressing.

Given the circumstance of the heinous crime that was committed and the fact that it was covered up not only by the teams head football coach but by multiple people involved directly with the football program, I think they’re lucky that the NCAA didn’t just slap the death penalty on them and call it a day. Now they’re going back and suing because they were coerced into accepting their fate? I get what they’re trying to do but I think it’s misguided.

Even if they win, this won’t change the public perception of Joe Paterno. A win would be the equivalent to a tabloid printing a false headline. Sure they’ll print a retraction, but it’ll be on page 6, not the cover, and it’ll be in size 8 font at the bottom of the page. No one will notice or care and it won’t change the opinion’s of most of the masses.

Agreed. In the court of public perception which trumps all, JoePa will ALWAYS be seen as an enabler for a child rapist, or, at the very least, he turned a blind eye and deaf ear while Jerry Sandusky went about his filthy business. Scott and the rest of the Paterno clan could beat the NCAA six ways to Sunday in court, maybe even break the organization, but nothing will EVER change the low opinion John and Jane Q. Public has for JoePa.

Im not sure how this is supposed to help anyone at all…I haven’t followed this in awhile so maybe im wrong on the details, but the gist im getting is that this lawsuit is more about the NCAA pushing State to just accept their punishment rather than the actual facts surrounding the case itself. Which, if thats the case, just reinforces the notion that theyre trying to make themselves out to be victims here, and are just shifting the attention to them, instesd of where it belongs, The actual victims, the kids.

I get tthat the paternos are trying to save face as a family, and if I found out my father did something like that, itd definitlet be hard to accept..But they really do need to stop.

I meant that I havent followed this particular development. Im actually pretty familiar with the case. I think the paternos shouldve bowed out quietly a long time ago, and I didnt bother with this latest suit because it just seems like more redundant attempts by them to clear joe, just in a different wrapper. If they win itll make the ncaa look bad with ttheir methods of punishment, but it won’t change the fact that JoePa fucked up.

If you watched Bob Costas special last night, they’re not only saying that the NCAA fucked up…They’re saying the Freeh report has many errors in it, one being the fact that they drew conclusions that Joe Pa knew about the cover-up based on very little evidence.

Based on the fact that the NCAA used the Freeh Report as their basis for penalties & fines, they’re at fault too….

News flash: The paternos have been saying that since day 1. Of course they would. Theyve said it despite the fact that its got credible facts and information. Its missing some things that 100 percent flat out state what happened… but ya see, theres this real moron thing most people do called thinking. Based on everything that came out before the freeh report and the findings of the report itself, its not hard to read between the lines and figure out what happened. The degree to which joepa fucked up may be up for debate, but theres no point in denying that the biggest figure on campus had knowledge of whst was going on and failed to act.

As they said on Costas last night, about 1% of people actually read the Freeh report who have demonized Paterno. That report was a shim sham by a former FBI cheif who himself is being investigated The truth will come out.